Bad Parents? Evaluating Judgments of Infant Homicides
Journal article
Authors | Brandon Sparks, Katia Vione and Dean Fido |
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Abstract | While the killing of one’s own infant is an undoubtedly harrowing crime, there exists little research exploring attitudes toward these individuals. Such work has focused primarily on depictions of mothers, yet UK government data indicates that the majority of infant homicide cases involve paternal suspects. A sample of UK residents (n = 245) participated in a mixed-methods design to explore attitudes toward mothers and fathers who have been accused of murdering their infant child and whether parental mental health issues impacted these judgments. Results aligned with the chivalry hypothesis wherein maternal suspects were evaluated more leniently. Qualitative analyses uncovered hidden gender expectations: mothers were ascribed blame when the father was accused of infant homicide, a finding that was not present in the reverse scenario. This suggests that traditional views of motherhood conflict with a shifting social landscape that is seeing an increase in stay-at-home fathers and working mothers. |
Keywords | infant homicide; infanticide; homicide; manslaughter; judgements; mental health; well-being |
Year | 2023 |
Journal | Psychiatry, Psychology and Law |
Journal citation | pp. 1-23 |
Publisher | Routledge - Taylor and Francis |
ISSN | 1934-1687 |
Web address (URL) | https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2023.2206876 |
Funder | University of Derby |
Accepted author manuscript | License File Access Level Open |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | 05 Jul 2023 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 15 Mar 2023 |
Deposited | 10 Jul 2023 |
https://repository.derby.ac.uk/item/9xqqy/bad-parents-evaluating-judgments-of-infant-homicides
Download files
Accepted author manuscript
Bad Parents Full Manuscript Revised Preprint.docx | ||
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | ||
File access level: Open |
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